Elder Ronald and Sister Shauna Peterson Lubumbashi Mission: February 29 - March 4, 2016

February 29 - Draper's last day in the office.

We had Draper's come to our house for dinner, then we had Family Home Evening at the mission home. Sister Draper made her famous Butterhorns for dessert. It is like a cinnamon roll, complete with cream cheese frosting minus the cinnamon and sugar.

March 1 - Draper's came to our house for a farewell breakfast. Then it was last minute packing, and the farewell pictures taken. It was very hard to say goodbye to these friends who have become so dear to us. It is as if we knew them in the pre-existence. We must have made a pact that we would meet someday in the Congo and serve a mission for a short time together. President and Sister Thomas drove them to the airport.

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Sister Glenda & Elder Neil Draper

Sisters Peterson, Cook, Draper, Vance, Peterson

Sister Thomas, Sister & Elder Draper, President Thomas

Solange, Sister & Elder Draper, Claremont, Ilunga

Sister Vance

Sister Vance had an especially hard time seeing Sister Draper go. She walked along the car to the gate, saying farewell. She and I shed a few tears off and on during the afternoon.

Wednesday, March 2 - Went through files and drawers today, starting to make the office "mine". Figuring out where I want the supplies. Sister Draper was very organized. I am combining her files and Elder Draper's files into one alphabetic file drawer so I can find everything I am now in charge of.

There were files in binders that could be put out in the depot for "archive" purposes. I do not need them on my desk.

Thursday, March 3 - President and Sister Thomas left today for Likasi and Kolwezi. President will interview the missionaries, hold a zone conference, and a dinner in both cities. They will be creating the Fungurume Branch on Sunday. It has been a group meeting together. Fungurume is a small place between Likasi (2 hours north of Lubumbashi) and Kolwezi (one hour further north from Likasi).

Before the President left, he brought over the transfers that will be effective next week. It was now time for me to go into action. I had never done the transportation spreadsheet before. I had only watched Sister Draper do it two times. She was very fast at completing it, knowing which cities needed a transport within the city, what to take outside the city, and then how much to get on the airplane.

Elder Peterson made a beef stew that smelled really good. I had just gotten home, looked out our door, and saw Peterson's walking home from their office. She hadn't started dinner yet; they were going to have leftovers, so we invited them to come over for dinner.

Friday, March 4 - Elder Peterson and Sister Vance helped proofread the Transportation Spreadsheet. We found a couple of places that needed to be changed--and then a transport within a city put in or taken out--Elder Peterson knew what to do there. So we got the information out and Justin got the tickets to and from Mbuji-Mayi.

Elder Peterson and Justin were in touch with Godefoid--with the rains the bridge between Mwene Ditu and Luputa and the bridge between Gandijika and Luputa were both out. I don't know how everything really ended up happening--it was said they may have to go on motorbike from Luputa to the bridge, walk across, then Gottefroid pick them on the other side and then them in to Mwene Ditu and then on the Mbuji-Mayi.

Went to the CarreFour food court near the large hyper pisaro for a chicken sandwich.